Senior scam

Published
11:01 am CDT, Monday, July 6, 2015

By Cory Davenport

cdavenport@civitasmedia.com

HARTFORD — A Riverbend senior citizen thought she had won the Publisher’s Clearinghouse second prize, but was disappointed to find it was a scam by an unknown caller with a phone number originating in Jamaica.

Margorie Schmidt, 76, said she had entered the Publisher’s Clearinghouse contest a few times over the last decade. She received a call this week from an individual telling her she had won second prize in the contest. While not telling her how much she had won, the man on the phone promptly identified himself.

“He gave me his badge number and everything, he gave me his file number and gave all sorts of numbers,” Schmidt said.

The man told Schmidt he had to run some files through “the government” before he could award Schmidt her prize. She said he told her the money needed to be wired from New York to “someplace in Illinois.” The man called on several occasions, according to Schmidt, to keep her updated on the money.

“He would ask me about my day and the weather,” she said. “They never asked for my Social Security or bank number.”

Schmidt did give her address, however. She said her son told her it was a scam, but she did not fully believe him until they asked for money. Schmidt said an individual asked her to send $483 to Odinville, Ga. It was when she was asked for money that Schmidt realized something was amiss.

“I called the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and they directed me to the Federal Trade Comission (FTC),” she said.

Schmidt wants other senior citizens in the area to be cautious about this telephone scam. Numbers on her caller ID revealed a number of the calls originated in Kingston, Jamaica and she said the FTC backed that data.

Senior citizens and everyone else who use telephones should not give any personal information over the phone to strangers.